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Hi Michael,
Yes, there is a difference between understanding the thought of creation and attaining it. The difference is that when we attain it, we become similar to the Creator, to His pure qualities of love and bestowal, and as a result of that we reveal Him in practice in our lives.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/04/when-all-doubts-will-dissipate/
And yes, it does happen in degrees, 125 degrees of us gradually becoming more and more similar to Him.
Keep in mind that we’re still in the preparation period prior to this spiritual ladder of 125 degrees. But once we start to do real spiritual work, we can measure our progress in our attitude towards other points in the hearts. That I’ll feel how my attitude towards them changes, from complete indifference, all the way until I feel them as pieces of my soul. We’ll learn about this in the more advanced lessons.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Michael,
We’re aspiring to unite with the Creator, we’re not there yet. If we have not yet attained this connection in practice, we cannot just take this concept as some maxim and live by it.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2014/10/if-i-am-not-for-myself-then-no-one-will-help-me/
The Creator is the force of love and bestowal. It’s the singular force behind all of reality. This force created us and is operating every moment to develop us until we reach the best possible state in life: adhesion with Him.
The creature is everything outside the Creator, meaning if the Creator is the force of bestowal, the creature is the desire to receive pleasure. This desire is ingrained within all of us, including the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature. Essentially all of our reality is composed of varying degrees of this desire to receive pleasure.
Furthermore, when we speak about the Creator, we speak about how we feel this thing called the Creator within our corrected desires.
In general, Kabbalah divides our research of the Creator into two parts:
The first is His essence (atzmuto in Hebrew). This is He Himself, His point of view, the Creator as an entity separate from the Created beings. We’re incapable of researching this part of the Creator because our research tools are not built in such a way that we can grasp such things. Perhaps after we finish the process of correction, we’ll discover additional research tools through which we’ll be able to research these things, but until then we limit ourselves and don’t talk about this part of the Creator because we cannot properly research it.
The other part of the Creator is called Bo-Re (Hebrew for Come (Bo) and See (Re)). This is the part of the Creator that we can research and reveal. How do we research this? Through the desire. When we take a part of our desire to receive and correct it in the direction of bestowal, in that corrected desire, we reveal a certain phenomenon, we call this phenomenon the Creator. This is why there are many names for the Creator (in Hebrew), since every time we correct a different part of the desire, we reveal a different aspect of this thing called the Creator.
So all of our understanding of this thing called the Creator is based on what we reveal within the corrected desire. But whatever exists outside of the corrected desire, whatever we don’t grasp, perceive or attain within the desire, whatever is beyond our tools of research, we don’t talk about. We need to keep these limits in mind in order to stay within the realm of science and not venture off into religion or philosophy.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/11/the-concept-of-god-in-kabbalah/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Naomi,
Nothing is in vain, everything in the past was necessary for our current level of development.
It’s just like how we educate kids. As an adult, you can look at a child and wonder why he is playing with a fake car, seems like it’s done in vain. But in truth, the toy car is exactly what is best for his development, and if he played with a real car, it could actually cause him a lot of harm.
Same with us. Everything we went through in the past was exactly what was needed for our level of development. And now that we’ve grown up, we are given different tools for our development. Once we develop even further, we’ll discover more refined means for our development as well.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Naomi,
Yes, it’s a dynamic number of people. And yes each one has to correct their part in the collective soul.
All of humanity is part of a single system, like cells within a single body. Within this singular system, there is a certain order of corrections that need to take place. It’s like building a large jigsaw puzzle. First you start with all the corner pieces, and only then do you gradually work your way to the center.
It’s the same with our spiritual work. There are those that are awakened to this work earlier and those that are awakened to it later. Those that received awakened points in the hearts are like those corner pieces of the puzzle that need to start the whole process. Later on, due to their good work, they pave the way for the rest of the world to join this process.
So ultimately, whether a person receives a point in the heart now or later depends on their place in the system, which is called the root of one’s soul.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/the-root-of-the-soul/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Chris,
Yes, you can say that. Keep in mind that the Creator, the craftsman behind all of life, is operating through the nature of bestowal, while we look at everything through the lens of our egoistic nature. As such, it’s impossible for us to understand Him. We’re simply operating on two different frequencies. But if we correct our egoistic nature and acquire the nature of bestowal, then we’ll become like Him and understand the reason why He created everything the way it is.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/09/learn-the-creators-language/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Daniela,
As we learn in this lesson on freedom, our main job is not in doing the correct thing, our main job is in placing ourselves under the influence of a good spiritual environment. All the rest is a consequence of this action.
This is similar to a seed that if we plant it in fertile ground, then it’ll get all the right nutrients and grow. If we put it in the desert or just keep it on a shelf somewhere, nothing will come out of it at all. So all of our work boils down to finding the best spiritual environment in which to plant our point in the heart. And what will ultimately happen to it is a result of the environment we put it into.
Here’s a quote about that from the article the Freedom:
“However, there is freedom for the will to initially choose such an environment, such books, and such guides that impart to him good concepts. If one does not do that, but is willing to enter any environment that appears to him and read any book that falls into his hands, he is bound to fall into a bad environment or waste his time on worthless books, which are abundant and easier to come by. In consequence, he will be forced into foul concepts that make him sin and condemn. He will certainly be punished, not because of his evil thoughts or deeds, in which he has no choice, but because he did not choose to be in a good environment, for in that there is definitely a choice.
Therefore, he who strives to continually choose a better environment is worthy of praise and reward. But here, too, it is not because of his good thoughts and deeds, which come to him without his choice, but because of his effort to acquire a good environment, which brings him these good thoughts and deeds.”
Albert @ KabU
